Elgin Cathedral

Elgin Cathedral

Elgin Cathedral is one of Scotland’s most ambitious and beautiful medieval buildings. It was the principal church of the bishops of Moray.

Begun in 1224, the cathedral was expanded after a fire in 1270 and further altered after an attack by Earl of Buchan in 1390 and Alexander, Lord of the Isles in 1402. The cathedral is central to the history of the region, and carries evidence of that history.

It lost its roof a few years after the Reformation, and the central tower collapsed in 1711. The fortunes of the neglected building began to change in 1807, when a ‘drouthy [thirsty] cobbler’ named John Shanks was appointed as keeper. One of his duties was showing visitors around. In the 1820s, this new visitor attraction was stabilised and partially repaired.